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From This is Cornwall 03/06/09:One of the traditional Westcountry summer's simple pleasures is under threat from health and safety rules which have already forced the closure of pick-your-own fields at one of the region's best-known fruit farms.For more than 40 years, the Boddington family has thrown open the gates of their farm near Mevagissey, Mid-Cornwall, for the public to pluck succulent strawberries fresh from the plant.But after being told to install safety features including handrails on drainage ditches and to cordon off potholes in the field in case errant pickers fall in, the family has decided it cannot afford to let people on to the farm.Phil Boddington, whose grandfather set up the farm 60 years ago and whose father helped pioneer pick-your-own in Cornwall, said it was a sad day."Unfortunately, it is seen to be a risk to let the public onto what's deemed to be a strawberry factory in the eyes of the insurers and the health and safety people," he sa…

Inspired by one of my oddest keyword searches yet, “law student 2”, I quickly found a film idea emerging in my mind. After all, I don’t think there are enough violent action movies featuring law students. :DThe plot:A small group of law students with superhuman powers enrolled at law school in 2007 and formed an alliance. They were called by a mysterious voice and were drawn from the far reaches of the UK to form a team combining the best superhuman strengths that a fictitious law student could possess. (Think a grown-up version of Captain Planet’s helpers, just without the environmental stuff)! During their first year they secretly upheld order and civility around campus using their mystical powers and superhuman strength. Known only as “the law students”, their identity was a closely guarded secret but could be relied upon to come to the aid of stricken law students. As well as porting answers to difficult questions via telepathy into the heads of students in seminars who hadn’t don…

From The Guardian 23/09/09:We've had a week of sex scandals in schools. Now Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, seems intent on stirring things up on the academic front.Female students, he declares, are a perk of the job for male university lecturers – though they should look, not touch.In an article for the Times Higher Education magazine on lust, part of a feature on the seven deadly sins of universities, Kealey wrote: "Normal girls – more interested in abs than in labs, more interested in pecs than specs, more interested in triceps than tripos – will abjure their lecturers for the company of their peers, but nonetheless, most male lecturers know that, most years, there will be a girl in class who flashes her admiration and who asks for advice on her essays. What to do?"Enjoy her! She's a perk."Flashing a few literary allusions, he continued: "She doesn't yet know that you are only Casaubon to her Dorothea, Howard Kirk to her Fel…

From The Guardian 24/09/09:Just hours after saying she has no plans for a new album, Lily Allen has closed down her blog on music piracy, saying the "abuse" received had become too much to bear.The singer posted messages on Twitter saying she was not going to attend an emergency meeting of music artists this evening to hammer out a unified position on illegal filesharing.The star says: "Hello, there is a meeting today in London where artists are meeting to discuss Piracy. My job done."I wont [sic] be attending the meeting because it's going to be a press frenzy and I don't want to detract from the issues. I'm proud of the fact that I've been involved with this debate but I'm passing the baton on to other artists."And I've shut down the blog, the abuse was getting too much."Allen had set up a blog "It's Not Alright" (in reference to her first album Alright, Still) collating the views of artists after her comments that…

From The Daily Record 08/09/09:Custard creams are Britain's most dangerous biscuits, it was revealed yesterday A study claimed an estimated 25million people in Britain had been injured by biscuits.Hidden dangers included flying fragments and daredevil dunking in scalding tea. And custard creams were the worst offenders, posing the biggest risk to innocent dunkers.Around 500 people a year need hospital treatment because of biscuit injuries.The study by Mindlab found 29 per cent of adults had been splashed or scalded by hot drinks while dunking or trying to fish the remnants from hot tea.They also found 28 per cent had choked on crumbs and 10 per cent had broken a tooth or filling biting a biccy.More unusually, three per cent had poked themselves in the eye with a biscuit and seven per cent were bitten by a pet or "other wild animal" trying to get their biscuit.Personally, I would have thought that Ginger Nuts would be the most dangerous biscuit owing to the hard and cris…

From Tech Dirt 14/09/09: Famed rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) was apparently on CNBC recently talking about his "business acumen." I have to admit that having three different people all trying to interview him at once is rather annoying -- as they almost never let him complete a thought. However, when they ask him about piracy, and whether or not it makes him angry (around 2 minutes), he responds that: he sees it as a part of the marketing of a musician, because "the people who didn't purchase the material, they end up at the concert." He says that people can fall in love with the music either way, and then they'll go to concerts. He notes that you can't stop piracy either way, so why try to fight it? The idea that low grade quality material – be that music, film or other content – on the net can actually fuel consumption for the genuine article is far from new. It’s also a theory to which I wholeheartedly subscribe and have witnessed certain behavi…

Yes, I can hardly believe it myself - my masters is finally over. As of Sunday evening around 21.00, my dissertation was finally RTM’d (Released to Manufacturing) and submitted the next day. I think the sigh of relief was audible throughout the entire neighbourhood.On the whole, my LLM has been a fantastic experience and have thoroughly enjoyed (almost) every aspect of it. One thing that did catch me out slightly was the dissertation. While I picked a subject which interested me greatly, I didn’t find the actual writing of it as enjoyable as I thought I would. The research and planning stages were exciting, as were thrashing out some of the finer arguments which would hopefully set my paper above the also-rans but as for the seemingly endless writing and re-writing of a 12,000 word paper, well, it proved a descent into utter tedium.Being cooped up in my stuffy office during the height of the summer probably had something to do with my frustration but I don’t feel that’s an entirely ad…

“How to pass first year contract law exam” – err, try revising perhaps?“cow saves a life” – the really scary part is this person searched for the same thing twice and arrived at the same page on my blog staying for a couple of minutes each time.“Lawyer with tats” – ooh tasteful.“how to claim against pedestrian” – Allege they came at you with a baseball bat and that’s how you got ‘those’ bruises. Next?“statute book funnies” – I can’t possibly imagine what could qualify as a statute book ‘funny’.“when is getting an llm degree worth the cost” – when you’re stuck in a rut, not quite sure what to do and have a few grand to spare. Next?“wallapers of sign of law and llb” – I’ve no idea what sort of thing this person was looking to find.“how to start praying” – Kneel down, hands together, bow head.... there, you’ve pretty much got it. You’re a natural! ;-)“fainted dental work experience” – Probably nature’s way of telling you that a career in dentistry isn’t for you.“i have never used an ink…

<N.B. THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED HEAVILY IN LIGHT OF DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BLAWGOSPHERE./THE MICHAEL - DECEMBER 2009>As a follow-up to my post earlier this year in which I announced the arrival of a bevy of new blawgs to the ‘sphere and reviewed each of their richvaried contributions, I thought I should give a shout-out to four more recent arrivals.So, in no particular order:Pink Pop Polka Dot – Quirky, energetic, and stylish, PPPD has burst onto the blawging scene with the boundless enthusiasm that only a newbie blawger can muster whilst sporting every colour of eye shadow under the sun. The author, Kim, takes the reader on a helter-skelter trip into, to quote the blog, “everything cosmetic, entertaining, life, law and more”. Kim is about to start her second year of the LL.B and, if her last post is anything to go by, is itching to get started again. While the focus of the majority of posts so far may be weighted more on the side of cosmetics than law, this will likely change onc…

Michael is a practising lawyer and accomplished cynic from the UK. He’s been blogging since his student days and can’t quite bring himself to hang up his blogging gloves just yet (they’re fingerless gloves, obviously).
He loves fussing over trivialities, seeking comfort from repetitive activities, idly reminiscing and moaning about things.